1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an electronic viewfinder, a display apparatus such as a projector, and a video camera using liquid crystals.
2. Description of the Related Art
A liquid crystal viewfinder is used as a viewfinder arranged in an image pick up apparatus such as a video camera. The liquid crystal viewfinder is designed such that an image formed by the image pick up apparatus is displayed on a liquid crystal display section, and the image displayed on the liquid crystal display section is seen through an eyepiece.
FIG. 1 shows a conventional liquid crystal viewfinder. Referring to FIG. 1, reference symbol A denotes an image pick up apparatus such as a video camera. The liquid crystal viewfinder is arranged on an outer side surface (e.g., the upper surface) of the image pick up apparatus A. An arrangement of the liquid crystal viewfinder will be described below. Referring to FIG. 1, reference numeral 1 denotes a finder case. A liquid crystal display panel 2 for displaying a full-color image is arranged in the case 1 on its front end side so as to be perpendicular to the outer side surface of the image pick up apparatus A. A panel-like backlight 3 using a fluorescent lamp is arranged behind the liquid crystal display panel 2. Reference numeral 4 denotes a mirror barrel which is arranged in the case 1 to perpendicularly oppose the liquid crystal display panel 2. The eyepiece-side end portion of the mirror barrel 4 extends outward from the rear end face of the case 1. An eyecup 5 is arranged on the extended end of the mirror barrel 4. An objective lens 6 is arranged on the inner end side of the mirror barrel 4. An eyepiece 7 is arranged on the outer end side, i.e., the eyepiece side of the mirror barrel 4.
This liquid crystal viewfinder is designed such that light radiated from the backlight 3 is incident on the liquid crystal panel 2, and a picked-up image signal from the image pick up apparatus A is sent to a display driver of the liquid crystal display panel 2 so as to cause the liquid crystal display panel 2 to display the picked-up image from the image pick up apparatus A. The image displayed on the liquid crystal display panel 2 is observed through the objective lens 6 and the eyepiece 7.
In the conventional liquid crystal viewfinder shown in FIG. 1, however, the resolution is low because a full-color image formed by the image pick up apparatus A is displayed on the single liquid crystal display panel 2. In addition, a large panel must be used as the liquid crystal display panel 2. As is known, the liquid crystal display panel 2 (to be referred to as a full-color liquid crystal display panel hereinafter) for displaying a full-color image is designed to form a full-color image by alternately arranging and displaying pixels of three colors, i.e., red, green, and blue. That is, one full-color pixel is expressed by three pixels of red, green, and blue. In order to obtain the same resolution as that of a monochromatic display panel for displaying a monochromatic image, the full-color liquid crystal display panel 2 requires the number of pixels three times that of the monochromatic image display panel. In other words, the full-color liquid crystal display panel 2 requires a screen three times as large as that of the monochromatic image display panel. Furthermore, in the conventional liquid crystal viewfinder, the full-color liquid crystal display panel 2 is arranged to be perpendicular to the outer side surface of the image pick up apparatus A. For this reason, if the liquid crystal display panel 2 is increased in size as described above, the height of the overall viewfinder is considerably increased. As a result, the viewfinder greatly protrudes outward from the image pick up apparatus A.